1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of shaving apparatus and more particularly to a novel shaver having means for imparting a circular, a reciprocating semicircular or oscillating movement to the cutting head thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the past, shaving hair from the skin such as a facial beard was achieved by means of a safety razor having a finely honed cutting edge formed along one side of a steel blade. However, as the cutting edge is drawn over the skin, nicks, cuts and actual removal of an epidermal layer is experienced which promotes infection, ingrown hairs and other skin disorders. This procedure is time consuming and requires shaving cream or other lathering substances for softening the bristles.
To avoid some of the aforementioned problems, it is the conventional practice to employ methods of dry shaving using automatic razors. In general, such a razor includes a case or housing which encloses a motor means having a drive shaft operably connected to a cutting means carried on a fixed cutting head. The cutting means generally include blades which are operated in a circular manner or in a pivoted linear movement depending on the style and construction of the shaver. The shaving procedure generally requires that the shaving head with the cutting blades be kept flat against the face, and maintained with a firm and even pressure thereagainst. The skin is kept taut by stretching the skin ahead of the cutting head by employing the user's fingers. This skin stretching procedure promotes the whiskers or bristles to stand straight up to expose more bristle so that the moving cutting blade can severe them below normal skin level. It is also recommended procedure to shave against the grain direction of the whiskers using a back-and-forth or round-and-round circular motion. This motion is of course manual and requires wrist and finger manipulation by the user to achieve proper results.
Although conventional electric razors do cut and remove whiskers and hair, problems have been encountered which primarily reside in the fact that the hair shaft or whisker bristle is not cut close to the skin and a stub remains. Also, the skin stretching procedure and the shaver circular motion procedure are manual operations which are not always understood and practiced by the user. The end result is that a close shave cannot be readily achieved so that a hair stub remains. Furthermore, although conventional safety blade razors can provide a close cut, such razors generally nick or cut the users skin during the shaving procedure which is obviously undesirable.
Therefore, a need has long existed to provide a hand-held motorized razor or shaver having automatic means for stretching the skin as the cutting blades perform their cutting procedure and simultaneously oscillating the cutting head in a motion so that the user need not require any manual dexiterity.